An anti-bullying rally at Northwoods Elementary School will become an annual event, organizers said Saturday.

Northwoods Elementary in collaboration with anti-bullying initiatives InsideOut, Know You Be You Do You (KBDY) and Children Under Family and Financial Stress (C.U.F.F.S.), hosted the Bullying Ain’t Cool Rally, which was designed for both children and parents, offering advice on how do deal with the various issues of bullying.

The rally was broken up into multiple unique sessions that dealt with separate concerns, such cyber bullying, low self-esteem and how to regain empowerment through improving confidence.

Stephen Maxwell, a teacher at the school, gave a seminar on the issue of electronic harassment.

“As an educator and someone with many nieces and nephews, my goal is to protect and shelter the children from the realities of the world for as long as possible so they can retain that innocence. However, once your child starts to attend school and become socialized, they quickly become aware of a lot of social issues whether you like it or not,” he said.

Maxwell exposed the many ways children can be harassed online to parents who may not have realized the full extent of what can take place without their knowledge.

“If your child gets on the computer or watches TV, they get exposed to all sorts of different things. You can only pull the wool over their eyes for so long before they start asking questions, like why are we having lockdown drills or why are there police officers walking around our school,” he said.

Also in attendance was Emmanual Simmons, a retired Marine and amateur boxing coach who is the founder of C.U.F.F.S., a mentoring program designed to give confidence to struggling children through the use of boxing as positive reinforcement.

“I love for them to come in and learn. I want to give them enough confidence to stand up to a bully, to speak up and say ‘Hey, what’s happening is not okay.’ The way they learn in the gym, they can learn that same way in school, too,” he said.

According to Simmons, the C.U.F.F.S. program also teaches leadership.

“At first, I’m beginning all the exercises, but after the first or second week, the children are leading. That’s leadership. If they don’t have that opportunity to learn that at home, they can learn it here and take it back with them. This is my calling and I love to do,” he said.

This was the first rally put on by Northwoods Elementary School, said Gail Gatewood, founder and director of KBDY.

“This was my first time doing something like this and I’m so glad everyone came,” she said. “Bullying really isn’t cool. If someone is alienating a child or making them feel less than, I want them to know that it’s wrong. I want them all to know how to be bully proof.”